Out of Time

Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

 “A pot of tea and a plate of crumpets please… Oh and if you could spare one of your best towels I would be very much obliged.” The Doctor gave his winning smile as he dripped over the floor of the café tiles, placing the mobile in his jacket pocket.

 “That will be Six eighty please…” The café assistant with numerous tattoos’ sighed wearily whilst glaring with murderous intent as he handed a towel over to the man who was creating a great big puddle which he would have to clean up. The Doctor patted his jacket and searched for non-existent money.

 Anna, who was at the Doctor’s side, shook her head and smiled indulgently.

 “Every time.”

 She handed the money over to the assistant and anticipating this newly acquired clumsiness of the Doctor she took the tray from his hands and led him to the back of the café, to a table by the window.

 “Cheers my lovely…” The café assistant known as Big Tony smiled kindly at one his regulars, wondering what she doing with such an eccentric man who looked like he wondered off the set of Brideshead revisited.

 Anna checked her purse with vague disappointment; that was her last ten pound note. She looked up at the Doctor who was rubbing his hair vigorously with a towel.

 “Oh don’t worry I haven’t turned into a miser, it’s just with losing my job earlier this year...” Anna smiled and placed sarcastic emphasis on the phrase as she explained. “Due to company restructuring, so now I have to cut back and count the pennies.”

 “I’m sorry to hear that Anna…I know how much you liked your job. But someone as brilliant as you shouldn’t have a problem finding a new job…” The Doctor pushed the plate towards his friend and motioned the eating action with dogged persistence until Anna picked up a crumpet; the Doctor didn’t really do subtle as he began munching on his crumpet, travelling through the time portal had made him unexpectedly ravenous.

 “There are no jobs out there; we’re in the middle of a recession. Which I know doesn’t mean a lot to you Doctor…” Anna shook her head and began to tuck in, the hot butter dripping down her fingers. “It’s been a somewhat humbling experience…Bookselling it’s in my blood.” Anna smiled sadly with a vulnerability the Doctor had never seen in his companion before. “I guess I’m not much good for anything else.”

 The Doctor leaned in close with a look of complete bafflement as he uttered.

 “But you’ve saved the world Anna.”        

 “Can’t exactly put that on my CV now can I?” Anna laughed out loud, almost choking on her crumpet. The Doctor smiled back, glad to cheer his friend up. “You’re still you…Only madder. I don’t know…Life after the Doctor, there isn’t really a self-help book or manual for that.” Anna leaned across the table and spoke with some of her old indomitable spirit. “Tell you what; you can do me a reference.”    

 The Doctor had finished scoffing his crumpets and patted his stomach contentedly; there was a mysterious look in his eyes which Anna had seen many times before. “Things haven’t exactly been going your way but Anna Bailey your life is on the cusp of momentous change…” The Doctor eyes flitted about, observing their companions in the café; this wasn’t a happy place, more of a refuge for the poor and dispossessed; the unemployed, the hung over students and the lonely elderly. The Doctor smiled sympathetically.  “On no, this was only a phase.”